Substantially automatic and continuously operating machinery for the manufacture of match splints and the like



March 11, 1969 HEDBORG 3,431,954

SUBSTANTIALLY AUTOMATIC AND CONTINUOUSLY OPERATING MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE QI' MATCH SPLINTS AND THE LIKE F1124 March 7. 1967 Sheet of t F a E I i i l FIG] Sheet Q of 1 NQE March 11, 1969 L. HEDBORG SUBSTANTIALLY AUTOMATIC AND CONTINUOUSLY OPERATING MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF MATCH SPLINTS AND THE LIKE Filed March 7. 1967 a T l United States Patent .0

3,431,954 SUBSTANTIALLY AUTOMATIC AND CONTINU- OUSLY OPERATING MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF MATCH SPLINTS AND THE LIKE Lennart Hedborg, Overboelare, Belgium, assignor to Aktiebolaget Siefvert & Foruander, Kalmar, Sweden Filed Mar. 7, 1967, Ser. No. 621,338 Claims priority, applicatiosn Sweden, Mar. 16, 1966,

US. Cl. 144-2 Int. Cl. B27c 9/00; B271 11/02 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to a substantially automatic and continuously operating system for the peeling of veneer and working up the peeled veneer into match splints or the like.

In ordinary match making plants of the prior art it has been customary that two workers break up the veneer web into sheets or strips and stack them in a pile or stack, e.g. upon a carriage. This is a heavy and tiresome work which requires much labour.

The principal object of the invention is to increase the efficiency of the plant and to eliminate or reduce the manual handling of the veneer, so that not more than one Worker is required on the location where the veneer is received from the veneer lathe comprised in the system, and to considerably facilitate his work.

This object is attained through the combination according to the invention which comprises a veneer lathe for the peeling of a substantially continuous veneer web and having a feeding out means for said web; a shearing means which is fed by the feeding out means of the lathe and is driven with a speed which is compulsorily dependent on the speed of said feeding out means, said shearing means being adapted to divide said continuous veneer web into separate veneer sheets, preferably of uniform length, and comprising a transport means for advancing said veneer sheets in a file; a sheet piling device adapted to receive the veneer sheets advanced by said transport means and comprising an advancement means which is located beside said transport means and has a lower advancement velocity than the transport means, and transfer means for successively removing the veneer sheets from said transport means and so depositing them upon said advancement means as to form thereupon a veneer sheet pile or stack extending in the direction of advancement of said advancement means and having a length exceeding that of the veneer sheets proper and in which each of said veneer sheets overlaps a plurality of preceding veneer sheets and is overlapped by a plurality of succeeding veneer sheets; and a cutter for cutting or chopping said pile of veneer sheets into splints, said cutter being fed by the advancement means of said sheet piling device and driven with a speed which is compulsorily dependent on the speed of said advancement means.

3,431,954 Patented Mar. 11, 1969 ice An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a system according to the invention, and

FIG. 2 is a side view of the same system.

Referring to the drawings 1 designates the lathe, 2 designates the shearing means, 3 designates the piling device and 4 designates the splint cutter or chopper. The lathe comprises a motor 6 which rotates a log 7 from which veneer 8 (FIG. 2) is peeled, and a lathe table which includes a plurality of endless, driven rubber belts 9 or the like which form a feeding out means for the veneer just peeled. As the diameter of the log diminishes during the peeling operation, also the translational speed of the veneer web diminishes. With regard hereto the rotary speed of the belts 9 is adjustable in dependence of the diameter of the log, and in addition thereto the entire lathe table is movable towards the log 7 in the disclosed embodiment. The driving of the belts 9 will be more extensively described in the following in connection with the shearing means.

The shearing means 2 comprises, as its principal members, a drive motor 11, an upper knife roller 12, a lower knife roller 13 which cooperates with the upper knife roller 12 to cut or divide the veneer web 8 into substantially perpendicularly cut veneer sheets 14 of substantially uniform length, and a pair of endless chains 16, which firstly drive the feeding out means of the lathe for the veneer web, i.e. the belts 9, and secondly feed in the veneer web into the shearing means, a transport means in the form of a second pair of chains 17, by means of which the cut veneer sheets are introduced in a file after each other into the sheet piling device 3, and transmission and drive means which transmit the power of the motor 11 to the above-mentioned, movable members. These transmission means comprise among other things a V-belt pulley 18 secured to the shaft of the motor 11, a second pulley which cooperates with the V-belt pulley 18 but is not illustrated. This second pulley may be considered to be located under the V-belt pulley 18 in FIG. 1 and drives a gear train 19 which in their turn drive the knife rollers 12, 13 which are mutually interconnected, and chain wheels 21, 22 over which the chains 16 and 17, respectively, run. The pulleys which are located at the right hand end of the lathe table and over which the belts 9 run are rigidly connected to a shaft to which the left hand pair of chain wheels 23 of the chains 16 are non-rotatably secured. Consequently, also the belts 9 are driven by the motor 11.

Before the veneer web reaches the knife roller 12, 13 it is engaged by a pair of wheels (not shown) which are each rotatably journalled above one of the two feeding chains 16 on an axis rockable upwards. These wheels cooperate with the chains 16 and are driven with a circumferential speed which may be, e.g., 60% higher than the speed of the chains 16. The distance between the circumference of the wheels and the chains 16 is selected in such a way that it permits the passage of not more than three layers of peeled veneer between the wheels and the chains 16. As soon as this thickness is exceeded, the wheels are rocked upwards by the veneer layers and in so doing actuate a micro-switch (not shown) which automatically stops the machine.

As mentioned above the whole lathe table is compulsorily movable towards the log, as its diameter diminishes. To permit this, the chains 16 run over a pair of chain wheels 24 which are rotatably journalled in a pair of hinged levers 26 which are biased by means of a weight 25. When the chains 16 accompany the lathe table in its movement to the left, the levers 26 and the wheels 24 are swung clockwise in FIG. 2. To permit arr adjustment of the speed of the belts 9, as well as that of the chains 16 and the rotational speed of the knife rollers 12, 13 to the speed of peeling, the motor 11 is secured to a one-armed lever 28, which is turnable on an axis 29 by means of hydraulic or pneumatic piston means 30 which can raise or lower the free end of the lever 28 and thereby also the motor 11, and in addition thereto the V-belt pulley 18 is axially expandable in such a way that its effective diameter diminishes. The lifting of the motor 11 and the diminishing of the effective diameter and the circumferential velocity of the pulley 18 occurs preferably in dependence of the displacement of the lathe table in such a way, that the speed of the members driven by the motor are adjusted to the veneer peeling velocity. The speed of the shearing means 2 may hereby be automatically varied between 1.1 and 2.2 m./s. The shearing means and particularly the knife rollers 12, 13 are more fully described in the Swedish patent applications 4,655 66 and 10,103 66. As is apparent from the figures, the transport means of the shearing means, i.e. the chains 17, feed the sheet piling device 3. The veneer sheets 14 are sequentially fed into the sheet piling device by the chains 17. The sheet piling device is provided with lifting and transferring means which lift the veneer sheets 14, as they enter into the piling device 3 and transfer them to a second chain conveyor which comprises a pair of chains 32 and two pairs of chain Wheels 33, 34 of which the last-mentioned ones are driven.

The speed of the chains 32 is only a fraction of that of the chains 17. As a consequence hereof, the fore end of each veneer sheet overlaps a plurality of veneer sheets which have previously been deposited upon the chains 32, while the rear end of the sheet in question will be overlapped by another plurality of succeeding veneer sheets 14. On account hereof a veneer sheet stack or pile 36 which is continuously advanced is formed on the chains 32. The lifting and conveying of the veneer sheets 14 from the transport means or chains 17 to the second pair of chains 32 or transfer means is suitably carried out by two sets of lifting arms, belts, or the like which are generally and diagrammatically designated 35 and cooperate with or seize the longitudinal edges of the sheets and are each movable in a closed path near the chains 17. These lifting arms feed in the sheets between a pair of driven rolls (not shown), which forward the sheets towards the pile or stack 36 onto which they fall down freely. The mutual position of the rolls is preferably adjustable in such a Way, that the direction in which the rolls forward the veneer sheets may be varied in dependence of the desired height of the veneer stack 36 which may vary between e.g. 100 and 200 mm. The longitudinal edges of the stack are preferably justified by means of two sets of vertical rollers 37, 38 of which the rollers of one set are movable to and fro as one unit, perpendicularly to the chains 32. As is apparent from FIG. 1, the chain wheels 34 and the chains 32 are driven by the drive motor 39 of the chopper or cutter 4. The sheet piling device is more fully described in the Swedish patent application 14,107/ 66.

The chopper 4 disclosed in the drawings is a rotating chopper, the circumferential surface of which carries at least one knife 41 and lancets (not shown). The pile or stack 36 advanced to the chopper 4 by the advancement means 32-34 of the sheet piling device is introduced between driving rollers 42 comprised in the chopper and having a fluted circumferential surface which engages the veneer sheets. The rollers 42 are rotatable on vertical axes and are driven with higher speed than the chains 32 to prevent the veneer sheet pile 36 from forming bosses or the like. By means of the knives 41 and lancets of the chopper, the pile of veneer sheets 36 is chopped into match splints.

As is evident from the above, the present invention has provided a substantially automatic and continuously operating system which reduces the necessary manual labour for the manufacture of match splints to a minimum. The embodiment illustrated in the drawings and described above is only to be regarded as a non-limiting example and may as to its details be modified in several ways within the scope of the following claims, e.g., the rotating chopper may be replaced by a more conventional chopper having reciprocable knives and lancets.

What I claim is:

1. Substantially automatic and continuously operating system for the manufacture of splints, particularly match splints, characterized by the combination of:

(A) a veneer lathe (1) for the peeling of a substantially continuous veneer web (8) and having a feeding out means (9, 16, 21) for said web;

(B) a shearing means (2) which is fed by the feeding out means of the lathe and is driven with a speed which is compulsorily dependent of the speed of said feeding out means, said hearing means being adapted to divide said continuous veneer web (8) into separate veneer sheets (14), preferably of equal length, and comprising a transport means (17, 22) for advancing said veneer sheets (14) in a file;

(C) a sheet piling device (3) adapted to receive the veneer sheets 14) advanced by said transport means (17, 22) and comprising an advancement means (3234) which is located beside said transport means (17, 22) and has a lower advancement velocity than the transport means, and transfer means (35, 40) for successively removing the veneer sheets from said transport means and so depositing them upon said advancement means (32-34) as to form thereupon a veneer sheet pile (36) extending in the direction of advancement of said advancement means (32-34) and having a length exceeding that of the veneer sheets and in which each of said veneer sheets 14) overlaps a plurality of preceding veneer sheets and is overlapped by a plurality of succeeding veneer sheets; and

(D) a cutter (4) for cutting said pile of veneer sheets into splints, said cutter being fed by the advancement means (3234) of said sheet piling device and driven with a speed which i compulsorily dependent of the speed of said advancement means.

2. System as claimed in claim 1, characterized by the provision of a drive motor (11) which is common to the veneer web feeding out means (9, 16, 21) of said lathe, said shearing means (2), the transport means (17, 22) of said shearing means and said piling device (3), excluding its advancement means (32-34) for said pile of veneer sheets (36).

3. System as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that a transmission (e.g. 18) having a variable ratio is interconnected between said drive motor (11) and the means jointly driven thereby.

4. System according to claim 1, characterized by the provision of a second drive motor (39) which is common to the advancement means (32-34) of said sheet piling device (3) and said cutter (4).

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 262,258 8/1882 Thompson l44209 567,153 9/1896 Morrison et a1 l44209 832,687 10/1906 Manning 144-185 1,473,545 11/1923 Collier l44209 1,734,272 11/1929 Pointer l44209 GERALD A. DOST, Prima/y Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 144-185, 209 

